Medals relating to St. Louis
As always, you can click or tap medals to see the reverse. Some medals might have multiple variants that differ in material, size, or other details. If multiple variants are available you can drag or slide medals sideways to display them.
The obverse bears standing female figure, arms raised, holding fleur-de-lis in her right and U.S. shield in her left, facing left; to her left, Statue of Liberty; to her right the Eiffel Tower; above, Linbergh's plane. Signed at lower right, KILENYI
The reverse bears Lindberghs Spirit of St. Louis over cloud=shrouded globe with his historic flight route marked as a dotted line. Below, COMMEMORATING / THE FIRST NEW YORK-PARIS FLIGHT / BY CAPT. CHARLES A. LINDBERGH / "SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS / NEW YORK MAY 20TH PARIS MAY 21ST 1927
The edge is marked STERLING.
Lindbergh's historic flight captured the world's interest like few other events and he was celebrated as a hero wherever he went. His return to St. Louis, the city for which he had named his plane, was a triumph. A large celebratory banquet was organized and bronze versions of this medal were handed to every attendee.
While the bronze pieces are relatively common, the silver and gold variants are exceedingly rare. The one gold piece was presented to Captain Charles Lindbergh at the dinner in his honor and the silver pieces probably to people involved with the flight and maybe dinner organizers.
The medal measures 83.2mm in diameter and was struck in bronze, silver, and gold by Whitehead-Hoag of Newark. The reported mintages are 1 piece in 14k gold, 25 in silver, and 2000 in bronze.